Over the years Barbados has produced and exported a variety of minor cash crops, including arrowroot. In the village of Chalky Mount arrowroot played an important role, and the production of arrowroot starch involved was the first attempt in Barbados to provide an organization for the processing and marketing of a crop produced by small farmers. The Chalky Mount Arrowroot Growers’ Association had a short life span from 1936 to about 1942. In this paper I discuss the history of arrowroot production in Barbados and the techniques employed in its production and conversion to starch. I also chronicle the short life of the C.M.A.G.A, describe its organization and problems, and offer some explanation for its demise.

This website brings together a selected list of my publications which have appeared since the early 1960s in widely scattered sources. These publications treat a variety of topics dealing with slavery in Barbados and the Atlantic World as well as some aspects of production activities in modern rural Barbados.